Sun News claims the deck is stacked against it

Adam Giambrone among three who will defend conservative channel to CRTC

The hearing that will determine whether Sun News Network has a future is expected to take place in the late afternoon of Tuesday, April 23 with live coverage available at CPAC.

And the most recent development — as reported by Steve Ladurantaye of The Globe and Mail — has found the channel complaining that it will be outnumbered by the opponents who are slated to speak before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

Just three supporters of Sun News will be allowed to express their belief that the channel deserves mandatory carriage, which will add about $4 per year — based on the wholesale cost of 18 cents per month — to the bill of every TV subscriber in Canada.

The federal regulator uses its own discretion when it comes to choosing the number of critics who are given a slot to appear at the hearing.

Adam Giambrone, the former left-leaning Toronto city councillor — and past president of the federal NDP — whose run for mayor in 2010 was stymied by a sex scandal that involved his office couch, is the most surprising name among those who will speak on behalf of the survival campaign from Sun Media owner Quebecor, whose network can no longer afford to lose $17-million a year.

Then again, Giambrone has appeared as a commentator on the network throughout its two-year history.

The other Sun News boosters due to appear at the hearing in Gatineau, Que. will be Andrea Mrozek, the recently appointed head of the marriage and family institute run by conservative think tank Focus on the Family, along with a representative of the Free Thinking Film Society, which runs an annual festival of libertarian movies in Ottawa.

Last month, Sun News submitted a slick publication that served as a response to the critical interventions among the 13,000 comments that were sent to the commission.

Some of the highlights, along with the full document, can be viewed below:

Handwritten letters

via Sun News Network

Snail mail written by hand might be a dying art but the Sun News response had two illustrated examples to include.

Body counts

via Sun News Network

Stick figures always make it easier to read poll results, right? Particularly when making the case against media consolidation — which the CRTC recently expressed concern with in its blocking of Bell Canada’s purchase of Astral Media.

A prime minister drinking champagne

via Sun News Network

A pedantic point about the regulatory advantages received by CTV’s news channel upon its launch in 1997 — which were distinct from what CBC Newsworld received a decade earlier — is illustrated with this picture of Jean Chretien with anchors Valerie Pringle, Dan Matheson and Lloyd Robertson.

Brothers in arms

via Sun News Network

You don’t want to let these guys down.

Border security

via Sun News Network

Petitions hosted on the U.S. website Avaaz have continued to be a sticking point for Sun News.

Complaints pie chart

via Sun News Network

Sun News has made the argument that past complaints about its programming have been of little consequence. The vast majority concerned a hostile interview that former anchor Krista Erickson did with Margie Gillis, which the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council ruled to be within journalistic boundaries.

Moreover, the response noted that its hosts are willing to admit wrongdoing after the fact — as in the case of Ezra Levant, who coincidentally issued an apology for comments about the Roma the day this document was submitted to the CRTC.